Digital still cameras (DSC) having shooting modes corresponding to various shooting scenes, such as portrait and nightscape have been widely used. In response to selection of a shooting mode, the DSC is set to have preset values of multiple shooting parameters, such as shutter speed and exposure, corresponding to the selected shooting mode. The photographer is thus not required to individually set the shooting parameters and easily takes photographs of a subject under shooting conditions specified by the selected shooting mode. In the case of image data complying with a DSC file format standard Exif 2.2, the selected shooting mode is written, together with other shooting conditions including a shutter speed, an exposure mode, and a light source, in a header or an equivalent portion of the image data.
The applicant of the invention has proposed a practical technique that sets image processing control information for specifying image processing conditions adopted in an image processing apparatus according to the shooting mode selected in the DSC, the shooting conditions, and the reproduction characteristics of an output device, and outputs the settings of the image processing control information related to image data. This technique ensures image processing suitable for the shooting mode selected by the photographer (that is, image processing reflecting the intention of the photographer). The image processing control information used in this technique is set by taking into account the reproduction characteristics of the output device and is thus substantially different from the shooting information, which simply describes the shooting conditions.
The shooting information including the shooting mode is, however, included in a greater number of image data (image files), compared with the image processing control information. When the image processing control information is not available, it is desirable to utilize the shooting information and thereby make a greater number of image data subjected to image processing suitable for a shooting scene at the time of shooting (that is, a shooting mode selected by the photographer).